


warning: your past may be closer than it appears

by Esmenet



Series: so what i'm saying is fuck the fortress of solitude [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 09:11:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5491733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmenet/pseuds/Esmenet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or; the skywalker twins deserve better than to be obi-wan kenobi 2.0.</p>
            </blockquote>





	warning: your past may be closer than it appears

**Author's Note:**

> just a quick something to work out my frustration with the directions j.j. abrams has decided to take leia's and luke's characterization.

General Leia Organa Amidala Skywalker, Princess of Alderaan. A woman made of steel. The reason she was chosen to lead the Resistance, of course—though a lot of old Rebel officers had ended up there by default, anyway. No reason not to stick with what you’re good at. 

The Resistance is so very handy to the New Republic—an officially lawless, unconnected group to resist whatever needs resisting, be it local dictatorships or new limitations on senatorial funding. She objects on principle, but she understands that if the New Republic does not have this, they will find something even more underhanded. 

—and they _have_ learned something from the Death Star, after all. If someone manages to blow up Coruscant while the senate is in session, a war hero and her cabinet are waiting in the wings.

There were plans in motion to account for the so-called _First Order_ , but they thought they would have more time. Everyone always thinks they will have more time.

_Where are you, Luke? You must be doing something very important, to stay away so long. Come home soon; we’ve a galaxy to win._

-

Here is something obvious we have managed to forget: the Skywalker twins do not give up. 

Leia spent her term in the Imperial Senate ramming policies past a room of dithering stiff-scared figureheads, and then again past the objections of Grand Moffs and the Emperor’s various underlings. It might not have amounted to much, but she _did_ it. She spied on the Empire from the time she was old enough to sit at her father's side in Senate meetings. She watched the destruction of her entire planet with Darth Vader at her back and Tarkin in her face and did not even flinch. She led the Rebel Alliance through times when it seemed there was no time, no money, no hope left. In the New Republic Senate she continued writing laws and arguing policy as hard and as long as she could stand, until the formation of the Resistance was announced in a closed session and it was _gently suggested_ that a former Rebel leader would be best for the job.

She’s good at it. She won't deny that.

Luke is very like her, except in the ways he is not. Personally, Leia doesn’t have the temperament to meditate on a rock for ten hours at a time, or to forgive dead Sith Lords who caused the deaths of millions. (The Death Star was Tarkin’s pet project, but Vader’s twenty years commanding the Imperial Navy were _not_.) 

She is hard where he is kind; he is merciful where she is just. Those small quirks aside, however, Leia would not hesitate to say she knows Luke better than anyone does—even Han, even Ben Kenobi’s ghost—and that he is not one to sit idly by while Sith conquer the galaxy. If he hasn’t reappeared by now, then he is either dead (he isn’t; she would have noticed) or he is doing something even more important than fighting Sith Lords and rescuing his wayward nephew. 

The galaxy is a big place. Force-eaters, star-swallowers, survivors of the old Jedi Order; whatever Luke has run into, he will deal with it. In his absence, this _First Order_ and the remains of the New Republic will fall to her. 

It’s as they have planned, then: she will take care of the government, and he will take care of the Jedi, and they will meet again when they have time.


End file.
